Number 8, Caught on the Fly, from the Tricks with Cards series (N138) issued by W. Duke, Sons & Co. to promote Honest Long Cut Tobacco
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 3/16 × 2 1/2 in. (10.6 × 6.4 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.207.138.8
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming 1887 commercial color lithograph belongs to the “Tricks with Cards” (N138) produced by W. Duke, Sons & Co. as a promotional insert for Honest Long Cut Tobacco. Measuring just over four by two-and-a-half inches, the card was designed to slip into tobacco packages, turning an everyday purchase into a small moment of entertainment. Its vivid hues and crisp details were achieved through color lithography, a relatively new printing technique that allowed manufacturers to create eye-catching imagery at low cost for mass distribution. The image depicts a deftly performed card trick—fit...
About the Artist
W. Duke, Sons & Co.|The Giles Company · 1870–1920
**W. Duke, Sons & Co.: Pioneers of Chromolithographic Trade Card Art** W. Duke, Sons & Co., an American tobacco manufacturer, emerged from the entrepreneurial vision of Washington Duke (1820–1905) and his sons in Durham, North Carolina. After the Civil War, Washington abandoned farming in 1874 to join his eldest son, Brodie L. Duke, in the burgeoning tobacco trade, establishing a factory that for...